The role of US evangelists in Uganda's 'kill the gays' bill

Adrian Phoon

US evangelists visited Uganda promoting 'cures' for being gay as the country debated a bill allowing the death penalty for homosexual activities. Photo: Glenn Hunt

A law proposing execution for homosexuals exposes a murderous fantasy.

Arecent proposal in Uganda to legislate the execution of homosexuals has sparked international outrage. Although the Government has since revised its prescribed sentence from death to life imprisonment, the bill remains striking for its overt hostility towards gays.

The move is more than just a Ugandan oddity - it is the embodiment of a murderous fantasy, cherished by fanatics in the West, to extinguish homosexual life altogether.

It is easy for the West to dismiss the bill as a local phenomenon, emblematic of African opposition to ''civilised progress''. Deeply religious and protective of traditional family structures, Uganda has long been hostile to homosexuality.

But a disturbing link has been revealed between Uganda's Anti-Homosexuality Bill and US evangelism. According to The New York Times, three US evangelists travelled to Uganda last March and spoke at a conference that conference organiser Stephen Langa said was about ''the gay agenda - that whole hidden and dark agenda''.

The Americans were invited to speak about ways of ''curing'' gay people. It appears that their denunciations of homosexuality as a threat to family values added fuel to the fire. They were heard by thousands, including the future architects of the kill-the-gays bill.

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The Americans have since sought to distance themselves from the bill. They insist their message is one of love, not murder. But the desire to eradicate homosexuality from human existence lies at the heart of the anti-gay movement, whether it is practised in Uganda or the West.

Central to the modern anti-gay movement is the proliferation of so-called ''ex-gay therapies''. These encourage individuals to ''convert'' from their homosexual behaviour, implying that being and acting gay somehow involves a choice.

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It all sounds harmless enough. Ex-gay therapies have sprung up around the world, including in Australia, and are often connected to religious institutions. The American Psychological Association recently granted that some individuals, torn between their faith and their sexuality, might ultimately choose their faith and so find appropriate support in ex-gay therapy.

The prevailing view among ex-gay therapists is that theirs is a modern technology that offers unhappy homosexuals a happy alternative to their life of misery. The assumption is that homosexuality makes you miserable. Yet surely it is not being homosexual but the prevailing atmosphere of homophobia that makes some people miserable. Abundant proof exists that, in the 21st century, openly gay people can live full and happy lives.

The ''choice'' advocated by ex-gay therapists is ultimately a restatement of traditional anti-gay prejudice. Evangelicals and ex-gay therapists may use the language of pluralism, of ''choice'', to advance their arguments, but they do so only to oppose pluralism in practice.

''Curing'' gay people and incarcerating or executing them both treat homosexuality as a crime requiring surveillance. Each regards homosexuality as a moral problem in need of a medical or social cure. Yet the anti-gay advocates are the ones who appear to be in torment - they suffer from denial.

Take the example of Richard Cohen, a US ex-gay therapist who, now married with children, claims to have converted from homosexuality. The author of several books, including Coming Out Straight: Understanding and Healing Homosexuality, Cohen spoke at an anti-gay conference in Uganda last April.

Cohen claims his attitude towards gays is loving. On US television last month, he sought to disavow any relationship between his appearance in Uganda and the tabling of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill one month later. ''Since the 1950s, the Ugandan government has punished people for engaging in homosexual behaviour, so this is not new,'' Cohen declared.

What Cohen, who was struck off the American Counselling Register in 2003 for ethical reasons, did not explain was why he attended an anti-gay conference in a country that punishes gay people. As he is fond of saying, everybody has a choice.

It used to be easy to identify homophobia. But now even homophobes fail to recognise their prejudice. Bigotry is reassuringly cosseted by an evangelising rhetoric of love, and reinforced by a medicalising language that veils the savagery of its aims.

Ugandans rightly recognise Western homophobes as allies. Events in Uganda expose the fraud of ex-gay therapy. Anti-gay advocates may not all espouse murder, but the ramifications of their words are lethal.